Moviestorm 1.6.0 beta available

Hello. Over at Moviestorm central we have been working on a new update that has reached the point where it could do with some field testing.We have opted to release a Beta for a change, as some of the improvements lend themselves to sharing and modders performance, and we believe that the diverse nature of our users systems and movies will be a better test than our standard test plans.So, if you would like to take part, we would be very grateful, and look forward to hearing about any issues and hopefully, a relatively clean bill of health.Ideally, we are looking for all feedback before the end of September, and thank you in advance for your assistance.

We are particularly interested in hearing about you sharing movies with other beta users, and in feedback from modders, who can now create new mods saved in your user folder.

WARNING - THIS IS A BETA RELEASE - THERE WILL BE BUGS. Keep a backup copy of any existing movies that you work on with this beta. Keep a copy of 1.5.4. If you are on a deadline to finish your movie, keep working on it in 1.5.4. Movies saved in 1.6.0 will not load in 1.5.4 or earlier.

Make a copy of your existing Moviestorm installation, or install a new copy of Moviestorm in a new folder, and make sure it is fully patched up to 1.5.4. This will be updated to th e 1.6.0 beta.Run the Moviestorm Launcher (the one you are updating to the beta), and log out.Click the log in button, and on the log in panel, click the 'Install Licence' button.Select the Moviestorm-patch-1.6beta1-30302.zip you downloaded, and then Moviestorm should restart.You are now running the 1.6.0 beta - log in and try it out.

Add a share option that tells the user what is needed to use the movie on another computer.Create a bundle that can be installed on the other computer to use that movie, that includes the addons needed and the movie file.

Improvisation improvements - talking improvisation (like iPad version)Improv while talking will sometimes use signing gestures, or improv gestures rated as 'TALKING'Improv Timeline that shows all the improvisations for one characterMood change dialogue no longer has advanced mode or improv timeline.

Improve upsell user experience in application and launcherDon't sell content packs, sell max upgrade, where appropriateAllow people to easily try the content in a theme bundle or in base version. On the settings menu, you can select a bundle to disable any content not in the bundle.

Let people load movies that have a corrupted summary.Let people load movies from backup files (rather than having to do a manual restore).Having face morphs that are at 0% no longer prevent a character from loading when they are not present.Let people load movies when there are missing things (from other addons). Replace missing objects with 'missing object' cubes, and shorten scenes with problem activities.

Partial head look at lets one look and nod or shake the head at the same time.Updated tutorial help text and images.

Fireplaces can now have the fire not burning in the grate, rather than always being on.Gizmos are now semi transparent.Tooltips at the start of timeline tracks.Faster 'info' behavior to determine what actions are possible to interact with stuff on the set.Resizing 'say' activities before playing them works better.

Randomly created characters now should have matching hair colours, if there are multiple hair materials.Randomly created characters don't have silly eyebrows.Randomly created characters have eyes with a material name containing one of "Cold", "Brown", "Blue" or "Green". No more snake eyes or red eyes by default.

The Wall Customizer now appears in the same place as the Prop Customizer, and appears when left clicking on a wall instead of right clicking (which would give a 'change colour' menu if the wallpaper is tintable).Clicking on the wallpaper part of a Portal (a Door, Window or Fireplace) now shows the Wall Customizer rather than the Portal Customizer.Changing the materials on a Portal is now done by right clicking on the material in the main view, rather than having a list of 'change colour' options in the customizer. Ie it now works just like other props.

"Simple Nav Mesh" object is now in Base rather than just in Talk Show.

Modder's workshop fixes and features loading screen provides feedback on loading progress instead of making jokes about spline reticulation selecting a node selects the parent nodes addon if the node is not addon specific textures are not shows with an excessive tree Now has adjustable lighting and shadows retexture wizard saves thumbnails to correct addon Sketchup import should now work better in situations where previously the import previewed, but then did not finish importing.

Edit 3/9/13: added updated link (can be installed over existing beta) - fixed issues:Rescaled props being moved in the set workshop now no longer change size by themselves, or rotate the gizmo.Open Door activity no longer gets marked as broken when the movie loads.Held props with missing materials should no longer be marked as broken when the movie loads.

Edit 12/9/13: Added Undo/redo to the direction controller in the lighting panel.Possibly fixed the high res huffyuv rendering by increasing the buffer size.Changed where snapshots are saved to (and let you change where they save to, and find them when you have taken them).Fiddled with menu indentation (might be making it worse in some cases, sorry; another version coming later)

Edit 18/9/13Changed the rendering so that the ffpreset has a bufferSize parameter for huffyuv. Should work in more situations than last week's change.Fixed the menu indentation more.

Edit 03/10/13Changed decal selected button to have a tick to make them easier to see.Finding files after they are generated (such as rendering a movie) now works better on a MacStock sets can now be sorted.Ambient sounds appear in the ambient sound menu again.Animations appear in the Verb creation menu again.Using Door->Open or Close now rotates the animation around the correct spot so that the person's hand does not go through the door when they are standing with the door handle on the right.

Edit 1/11/13Added new sit down animations for sitting on sofas, that start facing away from the sofa to avoid silly turning around when it is not needed.Added support to allow modders to add additional character models with skeletons other than Male01 and Female01.

Edit 14/11/13Fixed Modder's workshop bug that stopped one seeing animations when using an addon filter.Allow sharedmovie files to be installed in some situations where they were breaking previously.

Installing went well, now trying to understand the new functioning of improvisations, I'll figure it out eventually

I love the "Align with walls" feature! - this wasn't even mentioned in Ben's post, was it?

Off to playing around with the beta.

EDIT:Question: Using the share movie and all the needed content packs would mean that a user can distribute purchased add-ons for free with other users? Or would the user who receives the package still need to purchase the add-on to be able to load the movie?

Question: Using the share movie and all the needed content packs would mean that a user can distribute purchased add-ons for free with other users? Or would the user who receives the package still need to purchase the add-on to be able to load the movie?

The shared movie will include instructions on which licensed addons need to be bought (and when one does, the launcher will download them in the normal way), and will contain the free addons (to install).

So far for me..., The 'Nod' & 'shake' head gestures so far are Great while looking at 'something' or someone'.The eliminating of 'Improvisation' in the 1st 'Change Mood' of the 1st character/Puppet (& flow on of other Characters) is also great..I was worried for a bit that we couldn't control the way they look at each other but was relieved when I found that it was accessible in the 'Interactive' menu choice..

Plan on fiddling with it more over the Weekend.. But for me at this point I haven't encountered any Bugs.. I installed it on a Fresh (Virgin) install of MS.

However much grateful i am for the update and the long lists of improvements, i could not yet do much with it because of the spontaneous prop resizing too, Like daleh experienced.Being unable to remove them at all. Very annoying. And i have to finish that clip.So for the time being i will (unfortunately) downgrade again to 1.5.4.Thanks again and keep up the good works.So i can upgrade again soon.Thank you

Run the Moviestorm Launcher (the one you are updating to the beta), and log out.Click the log in button, and on the log in panel, click the 'Install Licence' button.Select the Moviestorm-patch-1.6beta1-30302.zip you downloaded, and then Moviestorm should restart.You are now running the 1.6.0 beta - log in and try it out.

I`m fully updated to 1.5.4 on my xpI log out and press log in. I get the panel and my username is already where it should be. Password is blank. I press "Install licence", find my downloaded file and press install. Nothing happens, I`m just back at the panel with my username. If I log in...nothing. If I first type my password and then Install licence, do the prosess...still nothing. Anything I missed?

QUOTE

and then Moviestorm should restart.

Edit: Even renamed it with a ".zip" as it didn`t have that. Still notting